Wandhama's Silent Memorial: Four Homes Stand Where 23 Pandits Were Killed

In the heart of Wandhama village in Ganderbal district, four crumbling brick-and-stone houses stand frozen in time. They are the last physical reminders of the night of January 25, 1998, when militants in Army fatigues killed 23 Kashmiri Pandits — including nine women and four children — in one of the deadliest attacks of the militancy era.

Time and weather have eroded much of the structures. Dense vegetation now grows through windows and archways. Of the seven Pandit homes that once existed, three were sold to local Muslims and replaced with new construction. The remaining four have been left untouched.

"Nobody from the village has touched the other four, but how long will they stand the weather and time?" asks Mohammad Haneef Baba, a 65-year-old resident.

Baba recalls that night vividly. It was Ramazan, and most men were at the local mosque. "We heard a few shots but thought it was somewhere far away. It was January 26 (Republic Day), and we thought it was a celebratory fire," he says. Then came the wails of women pleading for help. Young men from the gathering rushed toward the Pandit houses and found bodies scattered outside.

The massacre wiped out all four families that remained in the village after the larger Pandit exodus began in 1990. Five of the dead were guests visiting the families. Only one teenager survived, hiding in charcoal before fleeing with documents.

The killings triggered another wave of migration — this time of some Muslim families who moved to Srinagar and Sopore. Even today, the incident is spoken of only in hushed whispers. One villager in his fifties refused to discuss it, asking, "Why are you reopening the old wounds?"

Despite the trauma, bonds between the communities endure. Pandits who left decades ago still return to meet old Muslim friends, tend their land, and sell walnut produce annually. "They are connected to this village through their land and their friends," says Baba.

On August 25, the Jammu & Kashmir Police's State Investigation Agency opened a fresh investigation into the massacre, part of a series of probes into killings of Kashmiri Pandits during the militancy. The case has revived memories of a night that changed Wandhama forever — and of a time before, when a chance meeting between old neighbours could still bring warmth.

Abdul Gani, a local Muslim, recently met his childhood neighbour Brij 'Batta' at the village entrance. "We hugged," Gani recalls. "Time had changed us — we had both grown old and grey. But somewhere in his face, I sensed something familiar."